What the Future Will Hold for Us
by IBelieveInHeroes
Summary: Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz met whilst at S.H.I.E.L.D training camp. When Jemma arrived to see a young man standing in a mess of a room, grimacing in pain, she never anticipated what the future will hold for them. FitzSimmons. brOTP. Might move up to T - not sure yet.
1. The Desk and the Knee

**Hello, this is my first Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D fanfic! I've been really inspired by the FitzSimmons relationship so I was inspired to write this! ****Also, they are not romantically paired in this fic. It's about their loving brother/sister dynamic. ****I really hope you enjoy, please review!**

S.H.I.E.L.D training camp carried far more surprises than Leo Fitz could ever have anticipated. It was not the seemingly never-ending equations he was tested with or the computer graphics that jumped off the screen and moved when you swiped your fingers through the air but instead it was a shock that came on his first day, after only being in his dorm for about four hours at the most.

He had already settled in quite nicely. He had thrown his stuff on the bed, unpacked his laptop and was researching about the training programme so that he was prepared for the next few weeks of his life which, at the time, were unknown and slightly scary. He sat there in silence, the only noise being hushed muttering from agents walking past his room or the occasional click of his mouse. The room was simple, nothing flashy or too daunting. The walls were a steely blue, the carpet was a dark grey, there was a lamp in one corner and a television in the other. There were two small beds and one cupboard. There was also a small bathroom and that was it. Fitz was rather happy that it wasn't too unfamiliar. It reminded him of a hotel room he would stay in on holidays when he was just a boy. The only thing that was a bit unsettling was the S.H.I.E.L.D logo which was plastered to walls, bottles of water, coat hangers and even slippers and bath robes. To be honest, he was rather fond of the S.H.I.E.L.D bath robes.

The stillness was interrupted by the click of the lock on his room. In complete panic, he slammed the lid of his laptop down and stood up, hitting his knee on the desk as he did so and wincing in pain. The door opened and a figure walked in, holding about three boxes piled up in it's hands. The figure stopped in the doorway.

"Oh, you must be Fitz. I'm sharing a dorm with you," it said in a cute English accent which was a bit of a shock to Fitz. He suddenly realised that this figure was a woman. His heart skipped a beat and he immediately blushed because of the mess in his room. He just stood there, frozen, trying to find words to say. Eventually, after a rather awkward silence, he spoke,

"Yes, that's me. Umm... sorry about the mess, I wasn't expecting a roommate or at least not a woman. Not that I don't want a woman... as a roommate. It's just that I wasn't expecting you. I'm sure you're nice and all but... yeah. There's two beds so I should have been waiting for you but I didn't think. Sorry. I can tidy the place up if you want." He stumbled over his words nervously. The shock of a woman being in his room was too much for him and he got slightly awe-struck. Adding to the embarrassment of his room was the fact that she looked so smart in her blazer and dark skinny jeans and he just wore dirty jeans, a checkered shirt, a tie and a pair of old converse. On top of this, he was almost positive she had seen him bang his knee which was now throbbing with pain. She smiled politely at him and laughed slightly underneath her breath.

"No, it's okay," she said, walking further into the room and placing her boxes on top of the bed which wasn't already occupied. She noticed the bags and coat strewn across his bed. "Actually, we might have to clean up a little bit," she added. Fitz immediately picked up his bags and coat, blushing furiously.

"Aye, yes, of course," he stammered before cursing quietly, putting his bag in the cupboard and hanging his coat up on one of the hangers. "I'll unpack later." She smiled at him.

"I'm Jemma, by the way, Jemma Simmons," she chirped, holding out her hand to him.

"Leo Fitz," he replied, shaking her hand.

Simmons began to unpack her belongings whilst Fitz sat on his bed, awkwardly. He didn't know what to do. Surely it would be rude to just sit back down on his computer but was it creepy to just stare at her? She took a small pile of lacy bras and knickers out of one of her boxes and Fitz immediately looked away, clearing his throat. He decided it would be best to start a conversation with this stranger.

"So, what do you specialise in?" he asked. Inside his head he kept repeating the word 'science' hopefully. He wanted someone who would listen to him when he talked about rocket science or at least wouldn't get irritated when he watched monkey videos on the internet in his spare time. Simmons turned around, eyebrows raised in interest.

"Oh, I study biochem," she replied. Thank god, Fitz thought. The topic of this conversation suddenly sparked a fear in Simmons as well. She suddenly became afraid that she was sharing a dorm with a training field agent who would want to spend time alone and become grouchy and irritable and get annoyed with her whenever she wanted to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or give hour-long lectures in the evening about nuclei, genetics and hormones. "What do you study?" she asked sheepishly. The length of time from the moment the asked the question to his answer felt like forever.

"Engineering," he answered. She sighed in relief. Fitz furrowed his brows. "What was that for?"

"Nothing," she replied, "Your accent's cool. Where in Scotland are you from?" she asked, taking the final few things from her boxes and putting them in the appropriate places.

"Glasgow, born and raised. You?" he asked.

"London," she replied. She took a UK flag from her box and looked at it. "We're both a long way from home, aren't we, Fitz?" she asked, feeling a little bit homesick whilst looking at the flag. Fitz nodded and chuckled slightly. It wasn't a happy chuckle, however. Their homes, families and everything they had ever known was miles and miles away now. "I think this should go up on the wall," Simmons said, looking around for a space before pulling her tape from her box and taping to the wall behind their headboards. She stood back and looked at it. "Is it uneven?" she asked, tilting her head to both sides. Fitz stood next to her,

"No, it's okay," he said.

Jemma Simmons smiled and looked over to Fitz, her new roommate, and realised that the flag was not her only link to home. He was. He let her know that she isn't alone in this new place.

On top of this, she was becoming very fond of this Leo Fitz, the man who she first met after he hit his knee on the desk.


	2. Chinese Food

**Hello! Thank you to everyone who has supported this fic so far! I really appreciate it! I really hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review!**

"What are we eating tonight?" Fitz called to Simmons who was taking make-up off in the bathroom.

"I don't care, you choose," she called back. She scrubbed her face clean and quickly applied her moisturiser and continued to rub it in as she walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in one of the bath robes. Fitz was sitting cross-legged on his bed staring down at the menu. He had to admit that, even though he agreed with Simmons on the fact that this place did often feel like a prison, the food was pretty good. Simmons approached him and sat down beside him. "What's the most fattening thing we can get in this training prison? I need comfort food after that exam today," she laughed. Simmons had never found an exam as difficult as the one she had taken that day. In fact, until then, she had never really struggled in serious exams. She had always been a good scientist and her GCSE exams and A-levels were a breeze. Getting to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent was much more difficult that she ever anticipated. It wasn't the science that she found hard, it was the field training. She had never been the most athletic person. She has never enjoyed being under pressure. She had never really enjoyed great amounts of excitement or danger or anything a bit different to normal. She wondered why she even wanted to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent but she just did. She wanted to be something more than just a scientist. She didn't understand why she had to take those kind of exams considering she was only going to specialise in biochemistry. She didn't want to do orienteering around a deserted warehouse. She just wanted to be in the lab with Fitz. They were three weeks into the five week training course and it was already extremely physically testing for both of them.

"Erm... chinese?" Fitz suggested, raising his eyebrows.

"Ooh! Yes!" Simmons chimed, clapping her hands. She'd always adored Chinese food. Her brain flicked back to herself in university, going out alone and eating... alone. She soon realised that it was a rather sour memory and decided to forget about it. She looked over Fitz's shoulder and at the menu. She pondered for a second, looking over all of the dishes. "You choose for me. You know what I like," she said. Fitz nodded his head absentmindedly, clearly concentrating on the menu.

"Okay, I'll go and get some. Be right back," he said, leaping from the bed and heading towards the door, grabbing his keys on the way.

The door shut behind him leaving an empty, quiet shell of a room. It was lonely without his thick, Scottish accent. I sat there for a good few minutes in silence, watching various different inanimate and boring objects just because they were there. It was only when Fitz wasn't there when she realised how attached to him she had gotten. His quirks, his shy smile, his colourful shirts and his voice which enthralled and often confused her. She was becoming so very fond of him. She had never had a friend like him. He was funny, he listened and he just wanted to be with her as much as she wanted to be with him.

She decided to start watching a DVD to take her mind off the silence. She walked over to one of her boxes and pulled out Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. She loved that film. It was the first Disney film she watched and her favourite by far. There was such an elegance to the animation which is so hard to come by nowadays. She popped the disc into the DVD player, lay back on her bed and began to watch.

It wasn't long before Fitz arrived back at their dorm, bearing sweet-smelling gifts of glorious food which made his mouth water. It was a struggle for him to not start eating it on the way back to the room. He walked in and heard the tiny, shrill voice of Snow White.

"Is this Snow White?" he asked, already knowing the answer to the question for this was his favourite Disney movie. Simmons, still lying on her bed with her arms crossed tightly across her chest. She looked over to Fitz,

"Yes, do you mind?" she asked, sitting up at the sight of food.

"No! No, not at all! God, I love this movie. This has always been my favourite Disney movie," he explained, passing her a box.

"Really? Mine too!" she smiled and recieved the box.

Fitz smiled back at her. He, too, was becoming very close to Simmons. She was unlike any person he had ever met. He wasn't exactly the perfect person, he knew that, he could be arrogant at times but Simmons didn't mind. Simmons made him feel like he finally belonged somewhere. She stopped him feeling like a nerdy outsider like he was all the way through school.

He peered over at his blueprints nervously. This is the perfect time to show her, he thought, she'll like them. He looked over to Simmons who was eating her noodles feverishly, watching the screen. He shook his head and began to eat his food. However, he couldn't stop thinking about how much he wanted to show her the blueprints. They were only blueprints, she won't be that interested. However, she might like them. He sat there for a good few minutes, debating internally before he put down his box and walked over to his blueprints which were in his satchel.

He pulled them out,

"I wanted to show you these," he said, walking over to her. She turned to him, a quizzical expression on her face. He spread the blueprints out across the duvet in front of her. "I've had this idea for seven small droids, I suppose. They can be easily stored in a briefcase and they basically scan things. They can find out dates, materials and they could potentially create 3D computer graphics which can be transferred to the touchy, swipey air computer things," he mumbled, not knowing in the slightest what they were called, "I just thought of showing you because there are seven of them and I was just thinking of naming them after the dwarves. If that's not too cheesy or..."

"No, that's really cute," she interrupted, leafing through the blueprints. Fitz blushed slightly,

"I'm glad you think so," Fitz said, "I mean, I'll probably never get the chance to make them. If I do get enlisted in S.H.I.E.L.D I stand a greater chance but... they're a theoretical possibility, nothing more," he explained.

"And I am sure they'd be wonderful," Simmons laughed. Fitz turned and put the blueprints back into his satchel. He turned back to sit on the bed, however, this time he sat on the same bed as Simmons. Simmons wasn't phased by this at all. In the four weeks they had known each other, he was the best friend she had ever known and vice versa.

"Are you scared?" Fitz asked after a long silence. Simmons furrowed her brows confusedly. What could she possibly be scared about?

"What could I possibly be scared about?" she asked, giggling slightly.

"I mean, we have a week left now. What if one of us gets enlisted but the other doesn't. What do we do then?" he asked, sighing slightly. This thought scared him more than anything. He didn't want to say goodbye to her. He didn't want to turn back into the nerdy outsider again.

"We will stay in contact," she replied, trying to sound as chirpy as possible even though the thought of not seeing him again upset her greatly and sparked a fear inside her which she had not even thought about before then. She really wanted to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent now.


	3. Report Cards

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Fitz and Simmons sat next to each other, huddled up in a small corner with a tablet in front of them showing a 3D model of Sleepy, one of the seven robots they had not stopped working on since the night they watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The thought of being able to create these was becoming more and more plausible. They were now discussing and soving problems such as the fuel that would run them, the size, the features and, even though Simmons was not an engineer like Fitz, she was getting rather interested in the subject.

However, the chances of these droids being made rested on one tiny think which, within the space of that day, they would find out.

They were going to find out whether they had been accepted into S.H.I.E.L.D.

They both worked to the absolute best of their ability throughout the five week course. They revised as often as they could and they tried their hardest in the exams. Even the field work exams which both of them found terribly testing. Not only physically but it tested their patience. They were the slowest runners and not the strongest or best fighters in the bunch. No, they were much more at home together in a lab.

Simmons wondered whether she would enjoy being in S.H.I.E.L.D without Fitz. He made her laugh, he made her think and he made her happy. Would it be boring without him? Would she even want to be an agent anymore if she knew that his thick Scottish accent and mucky converse were so far away. She wondered if he'd forget about her. She wondered if he'd return to Scotland and be happy. He would probably meet a new best friend and then forget about her. Maybe one day in the distant future he'd think about her again. She would flicker through his brain after he walked past a biochemistry book and he would maybe take a melancholic moment of thought for her before continuing with his normal life.

Fitz feared exactly the same thing. He thought of Simmons returning to London and maybe hearing a Scottish accent and thinking briefly of him whilst sauntering through Fortnum and Mason. Their feelings were mutual and neither of them knew it.

It was around two o'clock in the afternoon when, whilst they were looking at Bashful, the sound of envelopes scattering across the ground reverberated through the room. There was a tenseness that suddenly seized the room and a stale silence.

They both knew that the noise was.

They sat there, listening to the sound of each other's breathing, neither of them daring to move for this was the answer to the question that had wanted to know for weeks. The stillness continued for a few minutes, both of their bodies rigid, before Fitz looked to Simmons. Simmons turned her head and looked back at him. There was fright in both of their eyes. Fitz raised his eyebrows at her, asking her if she wanted him to get the letters. Simmons bit her lip. She almost didn't want to know the answer to their question. After a few seconds, she nodded at him. He stood up and walked over to the door where the envelopes lay. Now that it was so eerily quiet, Fitz could hear his footsteps on the floor. He felt guilty for breaking the silence and desperately tried to make his footsteps lighter.

He reached the door and looked down at the two envelopes. One was face down and the other face up. The face up envelope had writing printed on the front,

SIMMONS, Jemma.

Report Card.'

He bent down and picked up both letters. He flipped them over in his hands for a few seconds. There was nothing on the front to give away their results. He took a deep breath and walked back to Simmons, holding out her envelope for her to take.

Simmons reached out and took the envelope. She looked at the front.

"Umm... Fitz? This is your report card. That's mine," she said, pointing to the envelope in Fitz's hands. Fitz looked at the front of the envelope he was holding.

"Oh yeah, sorry, so it is," he said before passing her the correct envelope.

Simmons took it and decided she couldn't wait any longer. Building up the tension and waiting for longer would not change the result either of them got. Neither of them spoke but instead they ran their fingers across the seal and pulled out the thick, crystal white paper inside. On one side of the sheet were comments. They didn't read them. They could read them later. They were only interested in their results.

They both, almost in unison, turned the paper over and stamped across the top of their sheet was either 'ACCEPTED' or 'DENIED'.

Fitz was accepted. His heart jumped and he had to refrain from gasping. He was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The nerdy outsider was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. However, he wasn't ready to relax just yet. He looked beyond his paper and over to Simmons who was staring at the back of her paper. She's been staring for too long, she must have been denied, he thought. His heart sunk. Scenarios of their goodbye flashed through his head and brought a lump to his throat. It was an outrage. Fitz knew what Simmons could do. She has two PHds in fields that he couldn't for the life of him remember the names of but, bloody hell, he remembered them sounding impressive. She was a genius.

Simmons looked up from her piece of paper and into Fitz's eyes. She could see it in his eyes that he got in. Simmons began to laugh in disbelief and joy. She leapt up and wrapped her arms around his neck, knocking him back slightly. Her giggling fell silent,

"I'm in," she said simply. Fitz smiled,

"So am I," he replied.


	4. Insane Opportunities

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"Oh... my..."

"God," Fitz gawped, finishing Simmons' sentence. It was something that they had started doing and it didn't bother either of them. They had gotten used to it.

They stood, boxes and bags piled up in their hands, in the middle of their lab. Their new lab. They had been working with S.H.I.E.L.D for a month and finally they had gotten their own lab. It was candy land for them. There were screens, projections, Bunsen burners, tool boxes and any other apparatus they ever could have wished for. It was clean, it was polished, it was theirs. They immdiately dropped their belongings and ran to look at everything. They fiddled and inspected. They ran their fingers across shining surfaces, smiling widely. It was perfect, more perfect than they ever could have anticipated.

"This is awesome!" Fitz exclaimed, looking around at the lab. It was everything he loved about science. It was the lab coats and the theories and the experimentation.

"It's a temporary lab. You will be moved into the bus in a few months," a voice said from behind them. Simmons nodded before turning around and almost gasping when she saw the owner of the voice.

"Jesus," Fitz blurted when he saw the owner of the voice. They both stood there, staring into the eyes of a dead man.

They were staring into the eyes of Phil Coulson. The man who died in the battle of New York.

Phil clearly noticed their shock as he chuckled slightly.

"You really should be clearance level 7 before it's revealed I'm alive but I decided I want you in my team. If you agree, of course. You're talented young people, Fitzsimmons," he explained. They both wondered whether he realised how scared they both were. They had learnt about Coulson's death and then he was just standing in front of them as cool as anything.

They both stood there, waiting for the other to speak first. They just stood, arms hanging limply by their sides, mouths opening and closing like goldfish. Eventually, Simmons conjured up the courage to speak.

"B-but, in the nicest possible way, you're dead," she stammered. Fitz nodded in agreement with her statement. Coulson chuckled again.

"Yes, not exactly. I took a few weeks in E and R and was fixed up. I was sent to Tahiti. It's a magical place," he said.

"I'm sure it is," Simmons muttered, still extremely uncomfortable at the events of the past minute. Life at S.H.I.E.L.D just kept getting stranger. It was an adventure that's for sure.

"Wait, wait, wait, you said that you wanted us to join a team? We've been here for a month, I mean, we are geniuses but..." Fitz began. Coulson's face turned serious.

"If it takes two young individuals a month to get noticed, that's something to get excited about," he said.

"Does that mean going out in the field?" Fitz asked nervously.

"Yes, most probably," Coulson replied. Both Simmons and Fitz turned to each other and scoffed in unison. Coulson didn't laugh. "I'm deadly serious about this," he said in response to their scoffs. They both fell silent.

This was an insane opportunity, and so early on. They couldn't turn down this opportunity but, at the same time, accepting it seemed terrifying. Even more terrifying than seeing a dead man walk. They exchanged each other a glance. They both knew what the glance meant.

They both turned back to Coulson.

"We would gladly accept this opportunity."

"Yes, that'd be wonderful, thank you," they said at exactly the same time. Coulson smiled solemnly and bowed his head before turning and walking out of the lab,

"Four months and then we'll put the team together. Oh, and Fitz? We've accepted your request to build your robots," he said on the way out.

He left the lab and everything was silent.

"This is mental," Fitz breathed. Simmons sighed and nodded in agreement. This was mental. Never, in a million years, could they have expected that morning when Fitz hit his knee of the desk what the future would hold for them. It was ridiculous. The future was now an open book with a date five months from then when they would becoming part of Agent Coulson's team. The nerdy outsiders would become part of the team. "We will regret this, I know it," Fitz said, feeling the cold metal surface of the desk in front of him with his fingertips. Simmons thought of the future and of them in the field tripping over rocks and panicking under gunfire. Then, more unpleasant images flickered into Simmons' mind. Images of Fitz getting badly injured, or him in a hospital bed or him in danger. This made her skin crawl and her stomach churn and she forced herself to stop thinking about such things. This was going to be a wonderful opportunity. They were going to be happy and end up okay.

"But isn't that part of the fun? We could use some adrenaline," she said, shrugging and turning to look at another bit of science equipment which interested her. Fitz shrugged and laughed slightly underneath his breath.

Yes, everything was going to be alright. Especially because they were finally making his robots.


	5. Let's Make a Cupboard

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"Jesus..." Fitz murmured, staring down at the pile of wood lying on the floor of his and Simmons' room at the S.H.I.E.L.D (which was next to their lab). Simmons stood behind him, her arms crossed across her chest and her face contorted into a look of confusion. This mess cluttering their floor was unknown to them. It was new. It was something neither of them had participated in before and it gave them both a headache at the thought of it. They didn't even know where to start. Do they sort everything into different piles? Should they find a toolbox? Do they talk a strategy through together? Or do they just get going and wing it? Or do they need instructions? Does it have instructions? Where are the screws?

"Is this a test? Surely this is a test!" Simmons said, still flabbergasted.

"No, I think they're assuming that everyone can put together a cupboard from IKEA!" he exclaimed. Simmons sighed,

"Why couldn't they have put it together for us?" she asked, dreading the thought of putting that thing together. Fitz shrugged.

Fitz was a rocket scientist and even he dreaded putting a cupboard together.

"I say we get on with it. I'll get my toolbox," he said whilst leaving the room to get his toolbox from the lab. Simmons reached into the box it came in and pulled out a small instruction booklet. She looked at both the front and back cover before flicking through the pages and she began to dread it more. Even her scientific brain got confused by the mess of diagrams that didn't in any way relate to the human genome.

Fitz arrived back at the room with a toolbox in his hands and he set it on the floor next to the pile of wood. Fitz saw Simmons' face and already could tell how daunted she was.

"Come on, we can get through this," he said, kneeling down beside the wood. He reached down and picked one piece. He looked it up and down.

"Is this...?" he began.

"Is it a leg?" Simmons suggested. Fitz looked back at the piece. He shrugged.

"Are there three more bits identical to this one?" Fitz asked. Simmons scruched her lips up before kneeling down with Fitz and searching through the pile for three identical pieces. After a few minutes of hurried searching and comparing they found the four legs.

"Now we need the side bits which I'm guessing are these," she said pointing to four larger panes.

Both Fitz and Simmons stood up and began to place all of the bits in the place they would go before grabbing the nails and hammer and beginning to nail the pieces together. Simmons held it steady whilst Fitz hammered in the nails.

"Have you ever made one of these before?" Fitz asked. Simmons laughed.

"Never! I have no idea what I'm doing!" she smiled. Fitz chuckled with her, noticing her red face and furrowed brows.

"I haven't either. Well, I watched my Dad once. I probably learnt half of my swear words from that evening," he said. He laughed whilst he said it even though he was deadly serious. Come to think of it, he probably learnt more than half. Simmons remained hopeful that, considering Fitz was an engineer, woodwork wasn't too difficult for him. So far, he seemed far more capable than her. "Do you want a go?" Fitz asked. Simmons was caught slightly off guard by this offer and her eyes widened. She thought it must have been a joke but Fitz was completely serious about the offer.

"Oh! No, no, no, I'm really bad at-"

"No, I insist," Fitz said, holding the hammer out towards her. She blushed and sat there for a good while, evaluating her options. She finally gave up and took the hammer, swapping places with Fitz whose new job was to hold the pieces steady.

Simmons took a nail and put it to the spot marked on the wood. She held it as steady as she could. She held the hammer back and with a mighty bang she hit it against the nail, jolting both pieces and Fitz along with them.

"Christ!" Fitz breathed, steadying himself.

"Oh, goodness, sorry!" she said. Fitz took a deep breath and positioned himself the same way as he did before.

"No it's okay. Just, not as hard next time, alright?" he said. She nodded and hit the nail once more. "Awesome, just like that!" Fitz said.

Simmons continued to hammer the nail until it was secure.

Once that was done, they repeated the process multiple times, switching roles occasionally. Once all of that was done, they stood back at their basic frame. FitzSimmons pictured beautiful, crisp and clean angles, seamless joins and smooth sides.

Unfortunately, sometimes things don't end up as good as you picture them.

The angles were wonky, the joins were messy and the sides were covered in mucky fingerprints. The fingerprints could be cleaned off but the angles and joints couldn't. They only noise was their dissapointed sighs.

"Well..."

"That was painful..."

They looked to each other, eyebrows raised as if the other could click their fingers and create something that looked like the picture on the front of the box and instructions.

"Should we just carry on?" Simmons asked.

"I suppose so," Fitz answered, rather downheartedly.

They sat back down on the floor and picked up things they didn't understand, searched through the instructions frustratedly and bickered with each other like brother and sister. They hammer nails into things, placed things in different areas and after all of these things there was still the awful realisation that something ha gone wrong.

"Why is that piece a different colour to the rest?" Fitz asked, referring to one of the beams at the bottom which was paler than all the others. There was a long silence as both of their hearts sunk in their chests and their faces went pale.

Damn.

"Have you put it on backwards?" Simmons asked, throwing her hands up in defeat.

"Me? Don't blame this on me!" Fitz shouted.

"You were working on that bit!" Simmons exclaimed.

"You were reading the instructions to me, thank you very much!" he said, rubbing his forehead.

"You're supposed to be the engineer! You're supposed to be good at this!" Simmons chimed, getting extremely flustered and agitated. Fitz groaned.

They both wanted to just kick the stupid thing to pieces and never think about it ever again. Ever again. They stood there for a long time, thinking about what to do next. Finally, Simmons spoke,

"Can we just finish it and then paint the bottom?" she suggested. Fitz breathed. This was why she was the genius.

"Okay. Let's get this bloody thing done," he said.

And that was what they did. They worked at fever pitch. They hardly spoke to each other because they were so completely focused on the task at hand. They just needed to finish it as soon as possible.

They worked until the sun went down until they could finally stand back and look at their completed cupboard.

"That was... fun?" Simmons said. Fitz couldn't reply but instead he burst out laughing. Simmons began to laugh with him.

That was the best bonding activity they could have hoped for and, god, it was dreadful and brilliant at the same time.


	6. The Homesick Genius

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"I miss you too."

Simmons felt a lump appear in her throat. She tried to stay strong; she tried her absolute hardest to keep herself strong but the more she heard her family's voices, the harder it became. She tried to swallow down her sobs and ignore the all too familiar prick of tears in her eyes. She felt pathetic. She felt like a little girl again, crying into her pillow whenever she went away on a camp at school. This continued all the way through her childhood and into her teens. She hated being away from home. Being in unfamiliar places scared her more than anything. She liked things she knew. She liked the feeling of her feet on roads that she had walked on so many times before. She liked the feeling On her face of a sun which she knew.

The sun here was hotter than the sun back in England.

"We're very proud of you," her mother said.

"Thank you," Simmons choked, beaming. Her throat was dry and sore.

"How are you? Have you met anyone friendly?" she asked. Simmons blushed.

"Actually, I met this guy..."

"Ooh!" her mum chimed.

"No! No, he's just a friend! His name is Leo, he's from Scotland," Simmons explained.

The conversation went on for a good five minutes before they eventually had to hang up.

"I love you," Simmons said, her voice wavering. By now, tears were managing to escape and they rolled down her cheeks and fell on to her jumper. She sniffed hard.

"Bye, darling!"

"Bye!"

The phone made a long beep and then went silent. The room was so still. She could hear her small sobs which were now creeping up on her. She looked to the ground and brought her hands to her head. She buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

She missed home, more than she ever thought she would. She knew this was going to happen sooner or later but she didn't think it was going to be so soon or hurt so much. It did hurt. It hurt a lot. She thought of her house and her family and her street. She thought of the tree outside her house. She thought of the autumn when the leaves turned orange and littered the ground. She thought of the winter's snow sitting on it's branches and she thought of the lush green leaves in the spring and summer months. She thought of the corner shop she used to go to every Sunday morning and buy her favourite chocolate bar. She remembered how she walked back to her house, holding the bar tightly in her hand. She missed that.

She was stuck in a secret facility with very little sunlight, no large tree or corner shop littered with colourful chocolate bars.

Fitz entered the dorm holding a briefcase filled with the robot prototypes. He had a smile on his face which immediately faded when he saw Simmons crying in the corner of the room. He stood by the door, speechless. She was staring at the phone and hadn't noticed his arrival.

His relationship with Simmons had been an emotional rollercoaster so far but he had never seen her cry until then. It physically pained him. She was one of his greatest friends and to see her so upset was heartbreaking. He wasn't ready for it. It physically hurt.

She looked up and saw Fitz standing in the doorway. She immediately wiped away her tears, feverishly.

"Oh lord, Fitz, I didn't... I didn't see you there," she sniffed, wiping her eyes. Fitz sighed and furrowed his brows sadly.

"What's wrong?" Fitz asked, his heart thumping inside his chest. Simmons made herself laugh but it came out blandly. She knew it immediately that it was a pathetic way to make herself seem okay. She sighed and felt the inevitable feeling that she was going to cry creep up on her once again. She sniffed once again and tried to pull herself together.

"I just got a call from my mum," she said, her voice cracking slightly. Fitz walked towards her slowly. "I guess I'm a bit homesick, that's all," she said, laughing at herself for being so silly and childish. Fitz would probably think she's a fool. She hung her head low in shame.

She felt a firm hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Fitz. He crouched down to her level.

"I just don't feel like I belong here. This is all big men in suits and the government and nothing like I've ever seen before!" she cried, feeling another round of tears pour down her cheeks. Fitz wanted to just flick a switch to stop her crying and then never have to cry again. He never wanted to see her like this again. He pulled her into him. Simmons was not fazed by this but instead she buried her face in his shoulder. They took a silent moment, Fitz desperately trying to make everything better. After that moment, he pulled away from her and put his hands on both of her shoulders.

"Jemma Simmons, do you know why you are here?" he asked, looking into her eyes. Simmons shrugged and tilted her head to one side shyly. "You are here because you are a bloody genius and therefore you have no reason to cry," he explained. Simmons giggled and turned completely red in the face. To hear Simmons laugh was wonderful for Fitz. She was returning to the Simmons that was his greatest friend.

"No I'm not!" she said.

"Shut up! You are a genius! Why else would you be here?" he said, smiling at her. She smiled back at him. "Now stop being an idiot, Jemma, and pull yourself together!" he laughed pulling her up from her seat.

Simmons was so happy and so grateful to have Fitz around, and vice versa. They were the other half of each other they both sorely needed and then, after spending so much time together, it was hard to remember life without each other.

All of a sudden, those Sundays when she went round to the corner shop in search of a chocolate bar that took her fancy didn't seem as appealing. They didn't seem as appealing because she realised that she didn't have Fitz. That was her life before her other half.

That was when she was incomplete.

Fitz suddenly remembered,

"Come on, I have some prototypes we need to test out! I'll let you test bashful!" he said, grabbing the briefcase he had left on the floor, taking his friend's hand and leading her towards the lab.


	7. The Bashful Melinda May

**Just a short update today!**

"They're beautifully made, aren't they? Did you do all this?" Simmons asked, holding bashful delicately in her hands. She turned it over a few times, marvelling at the intricate design and the work which must have gone into them which seemed like a foreign language to her. She couldn't even begin to comprehend the blueprints and the tiny pieces that must have been assembled to create such a cute little droid.

"Most of it, yeah. I had a bit of help but, you know," he replied, smiling at Simmons' reaction to the bots. Fitz reached into the briefcase and pulled out a small remote control like object. He passed it to Simmons. "Have a go," he said. Simmons chortled.

"Me? No, no, no... I'll break them!" she laughed. Fitz placed the remote control in her hands.

"I'm serious, have a go," he said. Simmons looked to Fitz apprehensively but Fitz just nodded. She put the droid on the ground whilst Fitz knelt down beside her and began to talk through the controls with her.

"Then all you have to do it press this button here and bashful should just land safely at the nearest flat bit of land. This button here will make him land directly underneath where he's flying and this one here with make him drop out of the sky so don't press that one," he explained.

"Why did you install a button that makes him fall out of the sky?" Simmons asked, staring at the blue button in the top right hand corner.

"For emergencies! For example, if it's flying and then an aeroplane is going to crash into it, it could just drop!" Fitz said. Simmons gave him a look. "Okay, I know it's very unlikely but I designed the robots and I wanted that button so there."

Simmons looked back down at the controls and pressed the small green button and watched as the droid began to move up and into the air.

"Now press the button when you want to stabilise," Fitz said. Simmons pressed the button when bashful was about two metres into the air. "Okay, now move around," Fitz said. Simmons did as she was told and she began to move throughout the room, grinning widely as she watched the droid move over their heads in seemingly endless circles. Fitz talked her through all of the stages of controlling bashful until she finally pressed the button which made him sink slowly back down to the ground.

Simmons noticed how her hands were shaking and sweating that entire time. It was nerve-racking and she was extremely surprised that she didn't accidentally murder bashful. Fitz picked him up off the ground and placed him back in the briefcase among his six other friends.

"FitzSimmons!"

Fitz and Simmons both turned around in unison and saw an agent dressed head to toe in black with her arms crossed over her chest. She had a small smile on her face and a glint in her eyes.

"They're very impressive," she said before turning away and continuing to go about her business.

They both turned to each other.

"Was that...?"

"How did she know our names?"

"She liked my robots?"

"Are we called FitzSimmons by everyone now?"

"Should we have said thank you?"

"I cannot believe that just happened."

Simmons smiled at Fitz,

"That was Melinda May."


End file.
